Reward Gateway, the global leader in employee engagement, today announces that more than ever before, employees are taking advantage of shopping discounts provided through its SmartSpending™ discounts platform.

The company’s SmartSpending™ platform saw nearly one and a half million active users across 2015 in the UK alone. It was also the best Christmas to date, with users taking advantage of the discounts available through SmartSpending™ to help them save during the festive period. This resulted in a combined total retail spend of £64.6 million in November and December alone, made up of a staggering 564,000 transactions, up 34% and 30% respectively year on year.

Users of SmartSpending™ have access to employee discounts at over 2,000 global brands. The discounts can be used online and in-store through cashback, instant vouchers and reloadable cards.

The high demand was in part due to the successful trial of Reward Gateway’s inaugural Daily Deals Week and Black Friday offers. Daily Deals week involved a frenzy of 24-hour lightning deals, as well as week-long discounts on the platform, and resulted in a spend of more than £8 million. Black Friday was even more popular than 2014, and incredible offers meant that more than £12.4m was spent by employees across the UK, a Staggering £3m on the Friday alone.

This increase in activity demonstrates just how much employees across the UK are valuing the benefits offered to them by their employers. It also shows that benefits don’t always have to mean pensions or private medical care - smaller everyday savings are appreciated just as much. 5.6 million transactions took place on mobiles or tablets, which shows that convenience and ease of usability is increasingly important to customers.

Richard Hurd-Wood, Chief Product Officer at Reward Gateway said, “We dealt with an unprecedented number of sales enquiries over the festive period and our global customer service teams worked around the clock across 365 days a year dealing with over 15,900 emails, 18,950 phone calls and 29,305 live chats. This is testament to UK businesses - they recognise just how vital a happy workforce can be to their company’s success, and are using creative ways to thank their staff.”

“The trial of Daily Deals Week was a huge success and is something we will be looking to roll out to wider markets throughout 2016.”